Posts by seattleniceguy

33

Hey! Watchtower.org site is getting more honest!

by AlmostAtheist in

jw
friends

.

i think their site is starting to reflect what they really stand for, agree?

http://www.watchtower.org.

seattleniceguy

LOL...I love the button for getting a free home bible study. "Hell No!"

SNG

41

"This just can't last much longer...."

by BrendaCloutier in

i went over and visited my parents today.

my mom broke her hip while we were in hawaii, and i've been mostly house/bed ridden myself since we got home.

so i finally got over there today.. we talked a little about the hurricane, which was on the news she turned off.

seattleniceguy

"Must...keep...going! Just...one more dune!"

"You said that three dunes ago!"

Name that movie!

SNG

49

God and Science

by Shining One in

now here is an interesting take on all things..... .

.

http://www.crosscurrents.org/godand.htm

seattleniceguy

OldSoul,

I will get back to you when I have time. I'm a bit pressed right now.

Shining,

Science consistently derives speculation from theories that are inobservable and undemonstrated. Again, this goes back to presuppositions that may or may not be accurate.

It is correct to say that science works within certain paradigms. The reason for this is that without a working paradigm, it is not possible to make predictions. But to say that science works on the basis "inobservable and undemonstrated" theories is simply wrong. Science does not and cannot work except by observation and demonstration - in fact, repeated demonstration under a wide variety of circumstances. This is the very basis of science.

SNG: "Religion just makes stuff up without regard for evidence"

Shining: That's a broad and all encompassing ststement. In some cases this is true but can you prove this specifically?

What I meant was simply that in science, you can't just make up random stuff. It has to fit into the evidence of the observable universe. I can't just write a scientific article and claim that water boils at 40 degrees Celsius when it has cat fur in it. It has to be repeatable, demonstrable, and logically consistent with everything else we know.

On the other hand, religion can just make stuff up. For example, I can just say with no evidence whatsoever, "God came to me in a dream. His name is Bob and he wants us to be good people. Also, hamburgers are bad." This is the way religion works. Sure, some modern religions have a semblance of logic or even scientific thinking to them, but it's a facade. At the end of the day, they get to make stuff up that is not objectively testable by anyone else. This is the primary difference between science and religion. Scientific claims are falsifiable, religious ones are not.

SNG

(Corrected spelling error.)

49

God and Science

by Shining One in

now here is an interesting take on all things..... .

.

http://www.crosscurrents.org/godand.htm

seattleniceguy

Seymour,

At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes_ an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive, and the most ruthlessly skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are separated from deep nonsense.

Excellent description!

"Those who invalidate reason ought seriously to consider whether they argue against reason with or without reason; if with reason, then they establish the principle that they are laboring to dethrone; but if they argue without reason (which, in order to be consistent with themselves they must do), they are out of reach of rational conviction, nor do they deserve a rational argument."_Ethan Allen

Brilliant.

Shining,

You say that Naturalism and Religion are both religious viewpoints. But I think you are missing a qualitative difference between the two, which is emphasized by Semour's first quote above. A naturalistic view demands explanations that are logically coherent and are demonstrable in the natural world. Religion just makes stuff up without regard for evidence, or even logical coherence at times.

SNG

13

Ouija board?

by out of the box in

i was a teenager i bought a ouigja board and my sisters and i played with it.

it scared us so much we threw it away!

but, i was forwarned about it, so i guess i could have driven myself to madness with my own mind!

seattleniceguy

Hello riotgirl and/or other Ouija board believers,

If you believe there is something to the Ouija board other than people playing tricks on themselves, there is a simple experiment you can do to prove conclusively whether or not spirits are communicating with you. Check it out:

Have a friend who will not be manipulating or viewing the Ouija board write a short series of numbers between 1 and 100 on a piece of paper and leave it face up on the other side of the room where it would presumably be visible to any spirits in the room, but not to the Ouija board operators. This friend should never be able to view the board, lest she unwittingly give the operators hints when they get close to the right numbers.
The operators ask the Ouija board what the numbers are. The operators should write their answers down without saying anything aloud.
After completing the list, compare the the two lists.

This should be easy information for spirits to give you if they exist. If they are really directing your hands, it should be trivially easy to get all the numbers right, and in the correct order. A series of five numbers between 1 and 100 would be sufficient to rule out any possibility of merely having guessed right, as those odds would be 1 in 10,000,000,000. Therefore, this would constitute powerful evidence that the spirits are real. On the other hand, if they can't even muster the clarity of thought to tackle this simple task, I think you should seriously look at alternative explanations for what you believe you saw before.

If you do this experiment, it is critically important that you follow the steps exactly as outlined. Humans are very clever at tricking themselves. These steps prevent that from happening. If you can reliably get some results (perhaps you make friends with a cooperative spirit?), by all means let me know. I'd be willing to travel anywhere in the world to see such phenomena actually working. However, I have the feeling that when subjected to rigorous method, the Ouija board will unfortunately fail to produce any effect.

Happy testing, and let me know what you find!

SNG

25

T-Rex Dinosaur is Found Un-Fossilized

by Perry in

scientists recover t. rex soft tissue 70-million-year-old fossil yields preserved blood vessels

science via ap tissue fragments from a tyrannosaurus rex femur are shown at left, when it is flexible and resilient and when stretched (arrow) returns to its original shape.

the middle photo shows the bone after it is air dried.

seattleniceguy

Very interesting. It would be cool if we could recover at least some mitochondrial DNA, which is easier to collect than nuclear DNA since it is much shorter and each cell contains hundreds of copies.

On a side note, I learned something interesting about the word "fossil" recently. I used to think of a fossil as a bone or plant that had turned to rock. But did you know that actually the word refers to any evidence of ancient plant or animal life? So, for example, even a footprint in mud (wherein none of the actual foot remains) is considered a fossil. In this way, the word is analagous to the word "artifact," which is any evidence of prior human life.

SNG

53